The rumor mill has been busy lately, as it always is at this time, with suggestions that the Oilers will be moving the #1 overall pick. So I thought it would be great to take a look at every team in the NHL and consider their assets… NHLers, and prospects … and consider which players we should be asking about. I mostly focused on the defense, and a bit on goaltenders and centermen, as I think those are our biggest needs. Some of these teams wouldn’t be able to offer much for our #1 pick and some teams would need more than our #1 pick for their assets, so I’ve also considered a list of tradeable players for the Oilers. This time of the year, it’s always fun to talk about trades.. but often they’re pretty unrealistic. I don’t mention any specific deals here though (save for a couple). Please feel free to make some suggestions in the comment section for guys we should be after, or trades we could make.

It’s a great interview, and I took several things out of it. One, and to no surprise, MacTavish is a very humble guy and doesn’t take any of the criticism thrown his way to heart. I’ve always considered him to be a smart man, and hell of a funny guy. The end of his coaching tenure with the Oilers.. I think Tencer summed it up best with the word “stale”. It was definitely time to go.. not because he was a bad coach, but because the messages just weren’t getting through anymore and a new guy was needed to give it a go. MacTavish definitely doesn’t hold back in expressing that it was the toughest time in his life to be cut loose, however… but he’s tickled to be back with all the energy and excitement this team’s youth brings.

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Considering we just looked at the draft, I figured it couldn’t hurt to take a peek at the available (for now) free agents that are out there, and who would fit on the team.

Although we should keep in mind that Hall, Eberle, Petry and the such will be getting paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaid right away, so we can’t spend too much (without getting Horcoff, Khabibulin off the books etc).

Also keep in mind, I feel that we need D and goaltending far more than forwards so that’ll be reflected in this post. Feel free to add anyone in the comments you would like the Oilers to go after.Continue reading 'Available Free Agents'»

The Edmonton Oilers and Oscar Klefbom have agreed to terms on a 3-year entry level contract. No financial terms have been announced yet, but all bets are that he’ll received $925,000 + signing bonuses… putting him somewhere in the $1.5M range for cap hit. This is great news.

In other news, Craig MacTavish had a great quote that I loved: “like the 17,000 fans, I’d like to see us improve the back end and our veterans need to respond.” Ahhh lovely. The way I see it, he’s coached here and knows how shitty it can be when your GM is too busy overpaying aging goaltenders to sign key players such as faceoff specialists. MacTavish should empathize more with the new coach and greatly understand their needs, and hopefully help react to those needs a lot quicker.

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